Live Review: Big Country, The City Views

Local supports The City Views started the night off with their easy listening indie-pop. After their first song Mute, they had a false start with another song but quickly recovered, laughing it off and apologising. They continued with Subconscious Psychosis and a song dedicated to sister Donna.

"This is a new song for us; probably very new for you. It's called 10,000 Yesterdays," Dave Wallace told the audience before stopping halfway through. "Sorry! We are going to start that again because we are idiots!" They had missed rehearsal due to to Wallace's daughter breaking her arm.

They finished their set with That's Why You Always Take The Long Way Home and Can't Afford A Wedding. Unfortunately for The City Views, the audience was really only there for one band only and didn't get into them as much as they may have in a different setting.

Before Big Country came on, if you stopped and listened, you could hear many a Scottish or English accent chatting away to strangers about how excited they were. There were some in the crowd that had been fans for over 30 years and yet this was the first time they were going to see them live.

Big Country did not leave their fans waiting too long before coming out with big, genuine smiles plastered over their faces and cracked straight into hits from their first album, The Crossing, with Porrohman and Harvest Home.

They had great rapport on stage and the happiness they so clearly felt at playing for the Rosemount was very quickly passed through the audience. "What a blast!" Simon Hough told us. They played Steeltown, Where The Rose Is Sown, Just A Shadow and King Of Emotion.

It certainly wasn't long before they had the crowd eating out of their hands. The audience (with a median age of around 50) were singing their hearts out, jumping around and living every moment to its fullest.

Big Country continued to play song after song before telling the crowd, "This is from our first album. It's almost 30 years old. We hope to come back to Australia next year to play this album in its entirety!" before breaking out their big hit, In A Big Country.

They finished their set with Wonderland and Fields Of Fire before thanking Perth and walking off stage to cheers. "C'mon Perth! You can do better than that!" a disembodied voice told the audience. Challenge accepted. They came back on stage and ended the night with Inwards. Hough said "Thank you guys! We've had an absolute blast. We have to catch a flight so we will see you next year!"

For a band that has been through great pain and loss when original singer Stuart Adamson tragically took his own life, the passion and the pleasure that they so obviously felt playing to us was incredibly strong and really did add to the joy of everyone watching them on stage. It was an honour for all there to see. While many there would wake up with a very sore head, everyone left with wide smiles and on such a great high that only comes from seeing your favourite band play for the first time. And hopefully not the last.